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Friday, November 30, 2012

Blogging Manners: The art of receiving gifts

I have spent years teaching my girls good manners. I am constantly telling them that manners don't cost anything and they mean so much. I am a little bothered when I notice that some people are skipping basic manners.

I have taught my 7 and 8 year olds that when you receive a gift, whether you like it or not, you give a big smile and thank the gift giver. They know that the gift is not as important as the thought that went into it. You are thanking the gift giver for their time and thoughts too.

AND, you never, ever complain or say ANYTHING negative about the gift.

In the blogging world, it's not unheard of to receive gifts, samples, goodie bags etc. These come from someone. Some business has spent time and money on making and distributing these items and they thought you were worth it. Maybe they are small, not our thing, not worth much or not relevant to our blog or readers. It doesn't mean they don't deserve our good manners.

There are nice ways to say thanks but no thanks.
If you receive a gift bag, thank the relevant people.
Use a hashtag to link it back to them.
and please don't bitch or complain.

17 comments:

How many times do you here I am going to ring and tell that company how well they have done or their trades are fantastic, no people are always quick to complain or read the riot act but can't bring themselves to say Thanks when it's a nice gesture or good job. Expectations are way higher than manners these days unfortunately. Your right its really easy to say Thanks for your time at least.

Beautiful post Rach! It is so unfortunate that people think manners don't extend to the online world and they can hide behind their computers and be negative. It doesnt take much to be gracious and say thank you :)

When I went on the Human Brochure trip to Canberra, we received gifts, food and the most wonderful hospitality from the hotel, restaurants and wineries we visited. It shocked and saddened me to see that certain tweeters (not wholly social media savvy) were openly criticising aspects of the trip and feeling hard done by because their profile was not increased by the Human Brochure experience. Bad manners annoy me online and offline. Great post.

Ohhh.... I can't believe that someone would be rude / ungracious about a gift. I know sometimes they may not be wanted / required, but nonetheless... it's a gift - as you say, a polite thank you may be all that's required!